A big well done to Ollie Creanor, Alex Long, Maia Bell, Mollie Long, Cayla Cooper, Lucy McInnes and Ashley Kee who were all finalists for their entries to the Keep Scotland Beautiful Environment Competition. They had to come up with a solution to an environmental problem in their area and they chose issues such as air pollution, chewing gum and litter as their focus.

On Thursday 27th October, Ashley, Lucy, Cayla and Maia went along to Edinburgh to represent Uplawmoor for the final event. Uplawmoor didn’t come first but we won £100, a certificate and met the Presiding Officer Ken Mackintosh. They were also lucky enough to get a tour of the Parliament!

Thank you to the parents and friends who came along to help with our Whole School Weed which took place yesterday morning. The pupils, staff and friends worked hard to tidy up our grounds and get rid of those pesky weeds!

Famous landmarks around the world turned off their lights on Saturday night for one hour to mark ‘Earth Hour’.

Earth Hour is an hour every year where people are encouraged to turn off their lights, to raise awareness of environmental issues.

In the UK the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in London went dark on Saturday evening.

Landmarks like the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Eiffel Tower in France also turned off their lights.

More than 350 landmarks in 178 countries took part in the event – here is a picture of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower in total darkness!

The Eco Committee played their part by organising ‘Earth Golden Time’! We came up with 4 activities which were outdoors and did not use any electricity. I chose ‘tent reading’ because it was nice to relax outdoors. We got to sit on cool beanbags and read of chat with our friends. By Mary Bruce P6

The Eco committee made a power point on the importance of picking up litter. We went round all the classes and presented it to all the pupils and teachers. We are going to make a chart and monitor the playground to see if the litter is going to increase or decrease. Hopefully this school will soon be a litter free school.

Today two people who worked for Think Green came in to tell us about electricity and WEEE. Adam and Michelle came to tell us how to save energy and what energy is used for. They also told us that our rubbish can be recycled to make different forms of energy.

Think Green have launched a competition for the children to design a new mascot for their company. The old one was called ‘WEEE Wally’. They said they new one will be called ‘Eddy Electricity’. We can draw it or make it out of old rubbish!

We encourage the people who read this to save energy for example, turn off lights, ipads and any cookers or ovens when they are not being used.

We received our first delivery of plants in October 2014. Most of these have survived our severe Uplawmoor winter. Our selection of Kales are particularly hardy , very tasty and are growing from strength to strength.

Our potatoes were planted several weeks ago in tyres and we received another delivery of plants 3 weeks ago.

We had to work furiously to get these ‘plug plants’ into pots and they are at present being stored in the polytunnel awaiting planting in our school garden.

As we expect to receive another two deliveries from Rocket Gardens before summer break, Josh has built two more raised beds to make additional space available for planting.

The Eco-Committee spoke to the girls and boys today about Earth Day which takes place on Saturday. Earth Day is an annual event which encourages us to think about protecting and saving our environment. Between the hour of 8.30pm and 9.30pm we should do our best to switch off any electrical appliances to save as much energy as we possibly can.

The Eco-Committee arranged our Golden Time activities to take place outdoors involving no electricity or technology. The pupils had fun taking part in tennis, outdoor sports, a treasure hunt and environmental art.

The media committee would like to ask all of our staff, pupils, friends and family to start collecting Morrisons’ Let’s Grow Vouchers. We can use these vouchers to buy seeds and tools to support our Gardening Committee. Vouchers should be placed in the cardboard wheelbarrow in the gym hall (at the committee walls).

The gardening committee have been busy with Mrs Waters growing peas, courgettes, potatoes, chives and onions. Our grounds are looking superb and everybody in the gardening committee (and other helpers) have worked really hard to produce such wonderful vegetables and herbs.

We are so proud of Jason Robb in P7, who won a highly commended award for ‘The Young School Gardener 2014’ from the Royal Horticultural Society. We are very lucky to have such a skilled gardener in our school! Well done Jason!